Has Apple Actually Done Something First With the iPhone 5?

A report from the detail-obsessed folk over at Anandtech, indicates that Apple's A6 chip in the new iPhone 5 is probably the first ARM Cortex A15-based processor in a phone, and it should be screaming (40 per cent faster than A9-based chips). Has Apple beaten Samsung, HTC, and everyone else to the A15 punch?

Ironically, Samsung makes the A6 for Apple using the same processes as its own Exynos chips. In fact, Samsung does have a Cortex A15 processor in the wings; it's, apparently, just not in a phone yet.

So, has Apple beaten the competition in the processor advancement wars? Perhaps. Whether that means the iPhone 5 will actually be faster, or more powerful than the rest, well, we'll find out soon. Either way, what it could be is more efficient, because it's probably built on a 32nm process, making it suck down less power and produce less heat. To you and I, that just means a cooler phone and longer battery life, and that can only be a good thing -- who doesn't want a phone that actually lasts a good day or two? [Anandtech via Apple Insider]